Starting Salary for Mid-size Med Mal Defense firm? Forum

[BigTimeHardo]

Hey guys,

Wouldn't be here if I hadn't already conducted a half-assed Google search.

Have an interview with a firm that specializes in med-mal defense, but dabbles in other insurance defense work, employment law, family law, and some ERISA stuff. But, med-mal is their bread and butter. About 25 attorneys, with a support staff of about 15, in a major market.

Firm is not listed on Glassdoor, and neither are the most comparable firms in the area. As such, I really have no clue how to approach salary negotiations. They do some very high end medical malpractice litigation and have a good rep among Plaintiff's firms. I feel like they could pay as high as 80s to start, but as low as high 50s based on what I see some of the defense mills pay their first years. Is this a reasonable estimate?

Anyone have any insights on a ball park figure for starting salary, like anecdotally? Any insight is appreciated.

Thanks.

[Hutz_and_Goodman]

No idea really but my guess is 60-65k

[General_Tso]

75k-80k in an expensive COL area, 60-65k elsewhere.

[RedGiant]

Hey guys,

Wouldn't be here if I hadn't already conducted a half-assed Google search.

Have an interview with a firm that specializes in med-mal defense, but dabbles in other insurance defense work, employment law, family law, and some ERISA stuff. But, med-mal is their bread and butter. About 25 attorneys, with a support staff of about 15, in a major market.

Firm is not listed on Glassdoor, and neither are the most comparable firms in the area. As such, I really have no clue how to approach salary negotiations. They do some very high end medical malpractice litigation and have a good rep among Plaintiff's firms. I feel like they could pay as high as 80s to start, but as low as high 50s based on what I see some of the defense mills pay their first years. Is this a reasonable estimate?

Anyone have any insights on a ball park figure for starting salary, like anecdotally? Any insight is appreciated.

Thanks.

I have heard that Robert Half has a good salary guide on their website for many major markets. I would look for that.

[Jay2716]

The numbers ITT seem low to me. They may be right, but at least in my market, biglaw is $115 and the med-mal/ID shops pay $75-$85

[Anonymous User]

The numbers ITT seem low to me. They may be right, but at least in my market, biglaw is $115 and the med-mal/ID shops pay $75-$85

That's good pay for ID. That's high end ID pay in the Bay Area.

[Jay2716]

The numbers ITT seem low to me. They may be right, but at least in my market, biglaw is $115 and the med-mal/ID shops pay $75-$85

That's good pay for ID. That's high end ID pay in the Bay Area.

It may be. Like I said, I only know one market. These firms are also supposed to be horrific sweatshops with billed hours requirements, so I assumed that's par for the course too. I have no idea how representative my market is.

Eta: also, the ID shops I'm talking about do lots of non-ID work too (general, lower-end biglaw work). If that's not typical, then my market is obviously less representative.